The present invention generally relates to methods of accessing voice mail over telephone or data networks and, more particularly, to a system and a method for accessing voice mail from a remote voice mail server using electronic mail or a web browser or a dedicated voice mail client.
FIGS. 1A and 1B show examples of voice mail systems 50. Voice mail systems 50 enable users to record, manage, retrieve and send spoken voice messages to and from other users. Thus, examples of voice mail systems include both a telephone answering machine and an automated telephone based spoken messaging system for a large corporation. An interactive voice response system which provides spoken voice information to the user over a telephone can also be considered to be a voice mail system. For example, an automated telephone banking system which provides account balances over the telephone can be considered to be a voice mail system.
The telephone is the most common means of accessing and recording voice mail (e.g., the IBM voice mail system). However, some voice mail servers (e.g., the new release of lotus notes) may additionally provide access to voice mail lover a computer data network (e.g., over the internet or an intranet), where the users can give voice mail commands using the keyboard and mouse. FIG. 1A shows a user accessing her voice mail over the telephone and FIG. 1B shows a user accessing his voice mail through the computer.
FIG. 1C shows a typical mail access session 40 of a user with a voice mail system 50 over the telephone. After a user calls her voice mail system, the user authentication 20 is performed by the user entering her name and her password using the dual-tone multi frequency (DTMF) keys on her telephone when prompted to do so by the voice mail system 50. The voice mail system 50 then provides the user with an option of choosing one of a possible set of actions by pressing DTMF keys on the telephone. Dual-tone multi frequency keys (DTMF) are a form of address signaling provided on telephone sets using push-buttons instead of a rotary dial. For instance, in our example, a choice of recording a voice message is indicated by pressing xe2x80x9c1xe2x80x9d and a choice of listening to the user""s voice mail messages is indicated by pressing xe2x80x9c3xe2x80x9d. The directions provided by the voice mail system 50 to the user to navigate through the menu are called voice prompts 30. The user understands the prompts and presses the appropriate DTMF keys to access her voice mail messages 10. FIG. 1C also shows an example of a voice mail message 10 and the process of navigating the voice prompts 30 to extract the message. Thus, the process of extracting the voice mail messages 10 in a mail access session 40 involves a navigation through the voice prompts 30 of the voice mail system 50 until the voice messages 10 are played back.
Some voice mail systems may also provide access to voice mail over a data network (e.g., a TCP/IP connection over the internet). In this method of access, a client computer interacts with the voice mail system using a set of messages in an agreed upon protocol (e.g., TCP/IP) and sends or receives the voice mail as compressed audio files.
The main problem with traditional mail systems is a lack of integration among the different types of messaging that a user access. Thus, a typical business user is forced to use the telephone to access her voice mail, an electronic mail client program on her computer to access her e-mail and a world wide web browser on her computer to access the world wide web.
Another problem is the lack of an automated method to navigate the voice prompts 30 of a traditional voice mail system 50 to extract voice mail messages. Thus, the users are either forced to switch to a more sophisticated voice mail system or to navigate through the prompts manually.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a system and a method for enabling access to voice mail synchronously or asynchronously from a remote voice mail server through an electronic mail client or a network browser (e.g., a world wide web browser) or a stand alone voice mail client.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a system and a method for automatically extracting voice mail messages from a voice mail server using speech recognition and natural language processing technologies by navigating through the voice prompts, for presentation to a user at a later time.
The invention is directed towards an automated system for extracting voice messages from a voice mail system and for providing unified access to voice mail and electronic mail or voice mail and the internet. For a given user, a voice mail remote access server connects to the user""s voice mail system through a telephone or data network, and uses speech recognition and understanding to navigate through the prompts of the voice mail system and extract the user""s voice mail. Depending upon the access mechanism preferred by the user, the voice messages are sent as e-mail messages with attachments (audio files) to the user or made accessible to the user""s world wide web server or displayed to the user using a stand-alone voice mail player application.